We played our first game of 2015 last Sunday, going down to the Kings 5-2. We'd beaten them 7-2 earlier in the season. They held onto third spot on the ladder, we dropped to sixth. We are now two points off of a playoff spot with seven games to go in the regular season.
We had ten skaters, the Kings had nine. Considering their
narrow defeat the week before, when they'd only had six skaters, this
should have set all the warning bells going. We were missing Baden and
Foxy, whereas we had gained Beau for his second game of the season at
the cost of no Dan.
They scored two strong goals in the first period, we put on one in the second which was quickly followed by their reply, and we got a final goal in the third followed by two for them. We had a total of 22 minutes of penalties (including a game misconduct for Christian), they had a total of 6. The Kings certainly had a couple of skilled forwards who were firing on all cylinders and everyone else on the team fulfilled their roles to suit. We had no-one shining, played reasonably well as a team initially but that started lapsing after a while and resulted in clumbsy and self destructive moments on the ice (eg. collisions and confusions, creating gaps). They were powering along quicker than us for much of the game and, when their lead finally stretched back to two goals, it just got worse.
Not for want of trying, mind you. I suspect that we had an 'off' night, and paid a price for having had the bye last week when all the other teams had been shaking off their cobwebs.
For me, the most disturbing aspect of play was my lack of urgency. The goal that I hold myself somewhat responsible for was one where I found myself 'cruising' towards a pick up of a loose puck on the offensive boards and failing to control the puck at all. The end result, their centre swoops and they're off with a two on one rush that results in a sweet shot into the back of the net. This wasn't the only moment I was aware of my lack of 'compete', but it was probably the worst.
I played the whole game in defence, with Tom as my partner (though I seem to play a fair bit on the ice with Mike also). I'll call us the 'first' pairing because Tom and I usually are there for the opening faceoffs. I pulled quite a bit of time on the Penalty Kill (the first time I've ever got to try and play within a 'box' defence), including a couple times of 3 on 5. Scary.
I got a couple nice passes off out of the zone, including a ripper in the first five minutes to an accelerating Christian. Also found Andy up the wing on a couple stretch passes from the zone which he commented on later. My skating felt competent for 90% of the game (after a couple slipping falls in the first few minutes on my new skates) but nothing spectacular. My stickhandling was very mundane, and totally failed me on a couple occasions (see above for the play I stuffed that led to their second goal). I generally covered my zone, a couple of times allowing someone through for a clear and strong shot, though I think always from out of the slot. By the end of the third I was closing out their star into the boards and matching his ferocity, but too little too late. I should have been doing it from the moment he showed a willingness to try and deke around me (which is something I allow to happen far too often - need to watch the body not the puck like in training).
It was interesting to hear after the game from a couple viewers that my skating appeared to be better than ever, and my positioning to be solid. Though the frank acknowledgement that my stickhandling was 'crap' accorded well with my own perceptions. For what it's worth, these same viewers were puzzled at what we got all our penalties for. I just shrugged this off and said 'we're the Knights' but it does make one think.
I was on the ice for four of their goals and none of ours (that'll wreck my plus/minus rating!). I was pretty instrumental on one of their goals (see above) and I was reliably informed by a viewer that I also had a hand on a second of their goals (whilst on the penalty kill). The other two, I shouldn't have done anything other than what I did (and they were rocket shots).
This coming Sunday, the Sharks. To give us a run for the finals, we will need to beat these guys. Last time we met, they won. Pressure is on.
GP 10 G 0 A 0 -6 5/4/1
Ice 6
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